14 Extraordinary West African Restaurants in NYC

We crawl the web for the best reviews of African cuisine and found this beautiful report by Robert Sietsema on his Top 14 West African restaurants in New York. If you do dine in any, let him and us know what you think of them. Bon appetit!

1. Ebe Ye Yie

2364 Jerome Ave
Bronx, NY 10468

(718) 220-1300

Ebe Ye Yie is a much older establishment than its fellow Ghanaian restaurant Papaye, which lies just uphill in Fordham Heights. In fact, Ebe Ye Yie has been at this location over two decades. Feast on tuo zaafi (a mash of pounded maize or millet) with a stew of mutton and dried fish, thickened with the crushed melon seeds known as egusi. A great cow foot soup is also available, along with the usual peanut and okra stews. For extra heat, ask for the chile paste called shito (pronounced “shee-tow”).

2. Papaye

Located on bustling Grand Concourse, Papaye is one of the most mainstream West African restaurants in town, owned by Osei Bonsu and managed by his nephew Kwame Bonsu. It offers nearly everything on the menu at any given time, in contrast to the three or four dishes available at other places. Try the mashed rice called omo tuo, along with a stew of goat in peanut butter sauce. The place feels like a gleaming modern cafeteria.

3. Bognan

590 E 169th St
Bronx, NY 10456

(347) 271-5457

There is only one Togolese restaurant in the city, and it has been operating in the Bronx for the last six years in one form or another, run by Fousseni Alidou, whose sister Haga Kamal does the cooking. A colorful menu posted on the wall offers abe nkwan (a palm nut sauce with goat), okra sauce with fish, and a very light peanut sauce, in addition to the stray dish from the Ivory Coast or Ghana. All sauces can be matched with kneaded starches like banku (fermented cornmeal) or fufu (a mixture of white yam and plantain). Spaghetti is another popular starch.

4. Grin

454 E 168th St
Bronx, NY 10456

(718) 292-8764

This small rustic establishment features the cooking of Cote D’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast), including the national dish of attieke (pronounced “ah-check-ay”), which is a coarsely textured manioc stodge with a delightfully sour flavor. It’s served with a relish or two and a cube of salty Maggi. Break it up. Attieke is conventionally served with a fried fish, which comes smothered in a mustardy mince of onions and tomatoes. Fried chicken and roast lamb are offered in a similar manner, and a stew or two is often available, thickened with okra and palm oil. It also serves espresso, which is ubiquitous on the Ivory Coast, lingeringfrom French colonial days.

5. Fouta

1762 Westchester Ave
Bronx, NY 10472

(718) 792-1700

Located in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx, which is now home to many West African immigrants from Senegal and Guinea, Fouta’s menu combines dishes from both cuisines. The interior has a clubhouse feel, and men sit around in robes and skullcaps eating bowls of fluffy white polished rice and sauce de feuilles made with sweet potato leaf, or lamb mafe decorated with a single scotch bonnet pepper. First-time visitors are made welcome, and French and English are readily spoken.

6. Africa Kine

Owned by Kine Mar and husband Samba Niang, Africa Kine was founded in 1996 on the 116th Street strip known as Le Petite Senegal. Now that the restaurant has moved northward, it has less of a nightclub feel. It’s one of the few places in town you can get the African-Vietnamese spring rolls called nems and an array of other starters (West African restaurants are often one-plate-meal places). Sided with a mountain of rice, the serving of mafe (lamb or chicken in peanut sauce) is still voluminous and laced with bright red palm oil, as is traditional.

7. Accra

Located in Central Harlem, Accra is Manhattan’s sole Ghanaian restaurant. Much of the food is observable on the steam table, but the kitchen staff is adept at whipping up dishes at your request, too. The commodious dining room is lined with photos of African politicians like Kofi Annan and entertainers like Angelique Kidjo. Go for the goat pepper soup, or the mixed meat in okra sauce with pounded yam fufu. The cooks will also be glad to recommend the further combinations that form the basis of Ghanaian cuisine.

8. Pikine

The name Pikine refers to the prosperous farmland that lies to the east of the Senegalese capital of Dakar. And the cooking reflects this lushness, with a thiebou djeun (the national dish) that offers a spectacular six vegetables along with its stuffed bluefish, and also sports red rice more pungent than usual and nicely crusted from the bottom of the pan. The peanut sauce called mafe is shot with okra, which ramps up the slipperiness. Go at lunch for classic Senegalese cuisine; at dinner the menu turns more to North Africa and France for inspiration, as is common at Senegalese restaurants.

9. B & B Restaurant

165 W 26th St
New York, NY 10001

(646) 429-8174

B & B is one of a newish crop of steam table restaurants that allow you to pick your own dishes, load them into carryout containers, and pay a very reasonable price by the pound. Typically, they offer dozens of recipes adapted from several West African and even North African and Middle Eastern countries. Sometimes African-American, Jamaican, and Haitian food is included as well. These places can’t be beat for a taste of the West African diaspora, even though the taste and heat level can vary.

10. Africana

Like Tropical Grill, Africana is located in Jamaica close enough to Kennedy to catch the traffic to and from the airport. Unlike Tropical Grill, Africana presents itself as a small café rather than a nightclub. The classic beans with dodo (fried plantains) makes a nice meal, with or without fried fish, or you might explore the multiple leaf- and seed-based sauces. Such include egusi (made with melon seeds and looking something like scrambled eggs) and edikaikong (made with waterleaf and pumpkin). A range of mashes like fufu (white yam) and amala (cassava flour) are available to go with the “soups,” which are like thick sauces.

11. Medina

51B Willoughby St
Brooklyn, NY 11201

(718) 855-8447

Medina is a bare bones lunchroom that offers a handful of African-American and Jamaican dishes in bargain renditions in downtown Brooklyn. But it also mounts a full Senegalese menu, of which a few selections are available every day. Suppu kandja (okra sauce) might be on the day’s roster, or it might be chicken mafe or the national over-rice dish of thiebou djeun, familiarly known as “cheb.” A fair amount of seating is provided.

12. Joloff

Joloff, which refers to an ancient West African tribe and its recipe for cooking rice, is also the name of one of the city’s oldest Senegalese restaurants. Founded in 1995 by the Diagne family, the restaurant combines Rasta elements with traditional Senegalese food. Appetizers are rare in West African restaurants, but here you can enjoy fataya jeun (mackerel turnovers), boulettes jeun (fish balls), and nem legumes, which are spring rolls brought to Dakar by Vietnamese refugees in the 1950s. Main courses run to dibbi (lamb chops) and yassa (chicken with mustard-flavored onions).

13. Buka

This decade-old Nigerian Clinton Hill institution provides the best view of the unreconstructed national menu, with few adjustments to perceived American taste, from gluey cowfoot stew to rubbery land snails to fiery goat or fish pepper soup. The bill of fare abounds with simple and complex food, and the first-timer could do worse than a serving of beans and dodo (fried plantain) or boiled yam and egg, both tasty but relatively unspicy. The build-out is bistro style, and drinks include the palm wine, which is definitely worth trying.

14. Tropical Grill

15341 Rockaway Blvd
Jamaica, NY 11434

(718) 949-1683

Many Nigerian restaurants cluster in Jamaica, Queens, making them easy destinations for travelers coming to and from JFK. Though also open for lunch, Tropical Grill affects a nightclub demeanor and is one of the few West African restaurants in town to offer a full bar. It also has a very long menu that reflects several styles of regional Nigerian cooking. From the north, it serves the peanut-dusted kebabs called suya and freshly made doughnuts whimsically called puff puff. Goat pepper soup is my favorite, laced with the West African spices called grains of paradise.